Oh Tenchu… what happened to you
Tags: Tenchu, Wii, WTF
Observe the magnificent cat-waggle abilities showcased in the forthcoming Tenchu 4:
They’ve also added some kind of bizarre particle effect which strongly hints at the player rolling to pre-defined positions. Not very ninjalike. (And get a load of that twitchy ragdoll.)
Tenchu was an incredible breakout game on the PS1. I remember importing the Japanese copy on my (admittedly modded) PS1, and being totally amazed by it. Sadly, the series stagnated after that, with the thoroughly mediocre Tenchu 2. The PS2 release of Tenchu 3 was… workable, but basically amounted to a re-do of Tenchu 1 with better draw distance. That was ok, as it triggered the old familiar nostalgia, but game mechanics had most definitely moved on at that point. (I never played Tenchu Z.)
This new one… is just embarrassing. Made by the original developers too – Acquire – so who knows what went wrong here, but it looks pretty bad. (“Core” Wii gamers burned yet again. I hope Mad World turns out to be as interesting as it looks.)
Also, what in the name of fuck have they done to Ayame. She used to be pretty much the coolest kunoichi design in all ninjadom. In Tenchu 4, she looks like a waitress at a 3rd-rate sushi bar. As a reminder, this is what she used to look like:
“That Ichigoya… sure does like his money.”
4 responses to “Oh Tenchu… what happened to you”
Aw crap. I was looking forward to this one too. I thoroughly enjoyed both of the PS2 Tenchu games. Tenchu Z was awful shit but when I heard that it wasn’t by the same developers and that they were making this Wii title, I foolishly got my hopes up.
Seriously. WTF happened Rikimaru. You fell off.
Here’s my question. If it’s a given in the games industry that a rip-off is not a wholly unheard off thing that could plausibly net you even a quarter of the profits that a game that sells a million copies does, why not dip in to the Metal Gear Solid well and clone a stealth action game? Admittedly, they did this with the first Tenchu. But that was 10 years ago. Developers are so much more greedy and unscrupulous now that I wouldn’t doubt (or mind. really) a re-skinned version of Snake Eater with Ninjas. Just do it, I’ll play it with hot tears of shame, knowing full well that I’ll be lumped in to the category of people who would play it and not even realize that they were diluting the quality of Games to come and sapping the originality of the medium as a whole.
I don’t mean to get off on a rant here( or sound like a internet meme dork) but Ninjas are supposed to be the baddest fucking people on the planet. There is such a good game waiting in the lore and history these guys. Don’t tell me to play Ninja Gaiden, because that’s about as base as you can get. I say we remake Shinobi as a straight up MGS style, hide in the shadows, slit some throats, dark and light based game. No matter how Splinter Cell it may sound.
Thank you for your time, sorry for the tirade.
PS- don’t play Tenchu Z, it’ll hurt you.
Tirade is more than welcome, Tyler. In fact I totally agree with you – if they even wanted to remake Tenchu 1 again, with some updated gameplay elements, I’d probably still be interested. It was one of the only true ninja games to me; I don’t really subscribe to the Ninja Gaiden school of design (more of a berserk samurai, that one). I really enjoy the aspect of sneaking around and never being seen, lowering drops of poison down a thread into a sleeping victim’s mouth, striking with one blow from a rooftop, etc. Tenchu did all that. (Well, not the thread thing. But there was poison rice.)
In fact they could title the thing “Hot Tears of Shame” and I’d just want it even more. Maybe someday.
I don’t get the cat thing… am I the only one?
I haven’t played Tenchu since the first one on PS1, it was too hard for me back then when I was like 13, but I’d love to play it again. That thread thing is badass…